July 11, the cry that is coming

On July 11, 2021, I was not in Cuba. By 2021, I had already spent twenty-six years away from that beautiful island where I was born. However, on that July 11, I was in Havana, that lovely city where I grew up. My body wasn't there, but my heart was with thousands of brave Cubans, who, tired of so much humiliation, took to the streets to demand and fight for the freedom that was taken from our parents and grandparents by a gang of thugs since January 1, 1959.

That day, the surrender, six years prior, of the United States to the Cuban dictatorship, thanks to Barack Hussein Obama, had ceased to be a hope in front of a regime that, rather than seizing it, entrenched itself in its stubborn impoverishing totalitarianism. That day, Cubans on the island were still suffering from the disastrous management of the regime in response to the COVID-19 epidemic. On that day, all of them, except for the dictators, continued to survive amid shortages of food, medicine, and basic services. The people were miserable, while the dictators remained mumbling useless and fanciful phrases. The real life against the wealth of Gaesa.

On that July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets and for hours overwhelmed the repressive dictatorship. Those were glorious hours for all of us who dream of a free and prosperous Cuba. I imagine, I know, that they were glorious hours for those brave individuals who, for the first time in their lives, took their destinies into their own hands. They did not fail; we failed for not exerting more pressure on the governments of the countries where we live to push back against the repressive assassins of the brave who merely sought freedom—something that is normal in any democratic society, and even in many of the authoritarian regimes that have taken hold today in various countries.

We failed in 2021 and continue to fail in 2026. Even with that executive order from the end of January, we have not been able to exert enough pressure on the Trump Administration to act decisively against that dictatorship whose military defense capabilities are laughable, but whose media and diplomatic skills, evidently, are unmatched.

The suffocation of the protests on July 11, 2021, is a lesson that all Cubans, both those trapped on the island and those free outside it, must internalize. The Cuban dictatorship has consistently demonstrated, throughout its grim history, a strong survival instinct. Even now, since January 29 of this year, it has been declared a "unusual threat to the national security of the United States." A threat that is anything but unusual. This totalitarian regime has posed a danger to the world since its very inception.

That July 11, 2021, the brave were repressed in the streets across the island. For a few hours, fear was on the side of the inept dictators, but six decades of experience in repression and murder cannot be overcome by just a few thousand brave souls taking to the streets. “The order to engage has been given”, said the grotesque “handpicked” figure, fear etched on his face, as his henchmen unleashed the worst that our beautiful island has produced. It is inhuman to repress young people, women, the elderly, and teenagers simply for asking for freedom.

They repressed without limits, knowing that their violent injustice would bring them no more consequences than the awarding of a dirty medal or a diploma from their masters. They repressed without limits, aware that the contempt and condemnation from both inside and outside Cuba would have no repercussions for their crimes. Another crime added to the long list of offenses that have gone unpunished.

Thousands of crimes, a long and sorrowful list, crimes, massacres such as that of San Juan Hill in January 1959; the bloodbath at the Cabaña fortress, under the happy gaze of a bloody Argentine; the sinking of the ship XX Aniversario in international waters in July 1980, and that of the tugboat 13 de marzo, also in a fateful July, but in 1994, or the shooting down of two civilian planes two years later, in February 1996. Also shot down over international waters.

These crimes are merely snapshots of sixty-seven years of their commission both in Cuba and abroad. The Cuban dictatorship has not only destroyed a nation that was prosperous and self-sufficient, but it has also twisted the very fabric of the Cuban nation, expelled millions of its finest children, murdered thousands of its bravest offspring, and imprisoned tens of thousands who have not subscribed to its dreadful ideology and practices. It continues to do so, even today, nearly six months after its misrule was declared an "unusual threat."

The dictatorship will continue to misgovern what remains of Cuba, but I repeat, it still dominates much of the narrative in world politics and the press. It continues to outmaneuver us, the free, despite the efforts we make every day, each in our own way, but all in pursuit of the same goal: a free and prosperous Cuba. We do everything we can, but clearly, it is not enough. We must prepare ourselves, be ready, to support the brave ones who, sooner or later, will inevitably return to the streets that the heartless repression took from them in July 2021.

In July 2021, Cuba was already an unproductive wasteland; blackouts suffocated the captives of the island, the scarcity of food, medicine, and basic services was widespread, and everyone thought that this failed state could not sink any lower. On this July 11, 2026, we are witnesses, sorrowful witnesses, to the fact that this failed state sinks lower with each passing day. It descends further into immorality and brutality, as seen in the imposition of misery upon its oppressed citizens. It has fallen so low that it has pulled the Cubans on the island from what we call a civilized life. 

Today marks five years since those brave individuals took to the streets for a few hours. Five years later, instead of improving even slightly, their lives have only spiraled into a continuous decline into misery and shame. Each day that this regime of inept fools survives means months added to the reconstruction of our island. Each day they remain seated in their air-conditioned white armchairs represents another day of blackouts, hunger, suffering, and the deaths of millions of unfortunate souls.

Five years later, the misery has grown, and we all know—both those over there and those over here—that under this dictatorship, there is no possible solution to the devastation caused by the blunt communist totalitarianism. There is none. Inevitably, weary from so much humiliation and desperate in the face of their plight, the moment must come when those who once lived in fear have no choice but to join the brave who never felt it. Today, more and more people are taking to the streets with their empty pots that once held food, but are now filled with dignity.

For weeks, they only went out at night, in isolation. In recent days, they have been going out both at night and during the day, becoming less and less isolated. The repression they face from the dictatorship is not only physical; it is also logistical. The blackouts prevent them from charging their mobile phones or accessing wireless connections. The blackouts serve the regime by cutting off their communication; when protests grow, they completely shut down the service. They did this on July 11, 2021, and they will do so again when the brave return to repeat, even more so now, the epic of that memorable day.

Cubans will return to the streets; they have no other option unless they adapt to living in the Stone Age with constant repression. When they come out, we must be ready; we need to ensure that our denunciations resonate with governments around the world, both those on the side of freedom and those complicit with evil. We must denounce not only the physical repression but also the criminal communication blackout, not just to governments, which are generally slow to respond, but also to the media, civil society organizations, and communicators on social networks.

We must help ensure that the spark, which was violently extinguished on that July 11 five years ago, does not lose its fuel this time. We need to make sure that those brave individuals do not stand alone in the face of the predictable onslaught from the hordes of repressors and murderers. We have to let these repressors and murderers know that times have changed and that their abuses and injustices will have consequences this time, that their impunity has come to an end.

We must stand with them when they come back out, and they will. They will, unless those on this side also leave us alone, those who promised us a solution and want or can negotiate with the same people whose mismanagement sparked the protests of July 11, 2021. Those who want or can negotiate with the same people who, that day, ordered the repression and repressed the brave souls who only called for freedom.

They will rise again, and we must stand with them, with the Cubans on the island, in that defining hour. In that hour when they will step forward to restore life to a homeland that was imposed with death. We need to let them know, the brave souls on the island and those who seem to hesitate on our side, that Cubans are not alone. Their struggle to reclaim their human dignity and material well-being, their fight for freedom, prosperity, and the right to happiness, is ours as well. They are not alone.